Student Protest

(2,460 words)

Student protests have a long tradition in China, which goes back to the era preceding the founding of the People's Republic. Starting with the May Fourth Movement of 1919, the Republic of China repeatedly witnessed such protests - in particular in 1925, 1931, and 1947- which mobilized broader sections of the population against the foreign powers or against the policy of the Guomindang. The self-perception of Chinese students as an avant-garde whose task it is to "arouse the masses" (huanqi minzhong), which prevailed also under Communist rule until well into the 1980s, hails…